Question about setting up my refugium? Need advice

[marcos77]

Hi, I have an 18G via aqua tank and I want to setup a refugium using an aqua clear 500 power filter. The picture below shows a setup that someone did which I want to duplicate.

1. How deep of a sand bed should I have in my refugium?

2. What kind of macro algae should I get that has the lowest risk of going asexual?

3. How can you tell if they went asexual?

4. Which light should I get for the refug.? I found these two lights at thatfishplace.com, these would fit perfectly on the refugium. The first one is a Mini Aqualight Double (Freshwater) which has Two 9 watt 6700k lamps or should I get the Mini Aqualight Double (Saltwater) with Two lamps: one 9 watt 03 actinic blue and one 9 watt 10,000k daylight? I posted a pic. of this light below, they are very cheap about $25.

5. Should I have any critters in the refugium, if so what should I put in it?

6. Would it be ok to have the lights on for 12 hrs. a day on the refugium? I have moonlights on my tank which I don't want to be overpowered by the refug lights at night.

7. Using this as my main filter what would I use as far as mechanical filtration to pick up debree in the tank? Do people place sponges in their refugiums?

Here is what this person wrote about their setup using the Aqua Clear 500 filter. "I added a 6" high baffle in the filter to separate the fuge area and reduce the flow into it. The area before the fuge I am going to use for the heater, carbon (when needed), and possibly a Piccollo skimmer in the future. I tested everything the other day, and I think the flow is about prefect for a 20 gallon. I am using the AquaClear surface skimmer, so that may also have helped reduce the flow somewhat."

Thanks

 

[seaham358]

Looks like a cool project. having a DSB in a fuge that size has no purpose, keep a 1" of sand should do fine.
I have several types of caluerpa in my fuges and the only one to go sexual was grape. I have razor, fern, mexican and some others I don't know the names of. Razor/blade I have on my 20 fuge and i run the lights for 13 hours and have not had a problem with it going sexual in 9 months. My grape I had went sexual 3 times in my 15 gal fuge on my reef and it turned the tank water white. Not a pretty site. I run the lights on the 15 24/7 because I don't want any more problems on the reef tank.
Light, I would get which everyone is cheaper.
Critters.... I would add nothing to the fuge at first then maybe a snail or crab to eat any crap that makes it up there.
I guess you could use a filter of some kind.... It may look like bad on the end hanging in the tank.
Unless you have a messy fish there should be little problems with this.

 

[marcos77]

thanks for the reply.

 

[saltcreep1025]

chaeto wont go sexual